Lubrication is an important aspect of maintaining machinery in proper operating condition. Machine elements such as bearings, journals, shafts, and joints require proper lubrication between their moving surfaces to decrease friction, prevent contamination, reduce wear and dissipate heat. Improper lubrication is likely to lead to premature component wear and component or system failure.
When determining the optimal lubrication between moving machine elements, many factors should be considered. These factors include the mode of operation of the machine, the type of machine element to be lubricated, the environment of the machine, the operating speed of the machine, the lubricant's viscosity, the lubricant's temperature, the lubricant's ingredients, and the lubricant's condition.
Prior art lubricators, such as the TRICO OptoMatic oiler, supply a constant level of lubricant within a lubricant reservoir to a machine element. The lubricant level is predetermined for the particular application and cannot be changed during the operating time of the machine to which the constant level lubricator is attached. Although this type of lubricator provides reasonable performance in many steady-state operations, multiple variables can create unacceptable operating conditions and lead to premature wear, or even failure, of machine elements. The variables include “on” and “off” operating modes (machine cycling), oil viscosity, machine speed, lubricant temperature, lubricant condition, and lubricant vessel pressure.
Other prior art devices indicate by LED signals the status of the equipment's lubrication such as lubricant condition within acceptable levels, lubricant condition at the upper limit of acceptable levels, and lubricant condition immediate action required. These devices are effective because an operator is signaled only when the lubricant condition is at the upper limit of acceptable levels or if immediate action is required. This reduces maintenance costs and productivity is enhanced.
Available condition monitoring techniques including lubricant analysis, vibration monitoring, thermography, ultrasonic and others collect information specific to existing equipment or lubricant condition measured by one or multiple parameters. The condition is treated as a single point analysis or combined with historical monitoring event to establish a trend either through simply connecting specific parametric values or mathematically calculating a historical trend including the present value. Values are individually compared manually or automatically.
Selected maintenance monitoring software routines may include selected condemning limits either automatically or manually selected. These systems will aid in identifying equipment conditions exceeding limits.
Lubricants typically degrade during operation and exposure to environmental conditions. Degradation also occurs as lubricant protective additives are consumed or break down. Condemning limits can be set for various physical and chemical properties of lubricating oil, which represent criteria of the lubricant that are measured during usage of the lubricant. If condemning limits are met, ordinarily the lubricant is either rehabilitated through a rehabilitation sequence, or changed altogether.
Available systems are limited in that they do not simultaneously analyze all parameters identifying the parameter at highest risk of exceeding the condemning limits and therefore cannot project condition to the future. Available systems do not identify the time to exceed condemning limits. Available systems do not identify the specific parameters causing individual equipment/lubricant combinations or groups of similar characteristics to exceed condemning limits. Available systems do not identify systematic parameters causing multiple equipment/lubricant combinations within a group to exceed condemning limits. These systems do not use virtual condemning limit sets containing elements from multiple sources creating a complete limit set. Available systems do not automatically generate condemning limits based on historical values and condition ratings. Available systems do not do not allow individual parameters in a multiple parameter analysis to be individually calculated using liner or quadratic trend routines.
Limitations of existing systems force equipment owner and managers to direct maintenance based on limited information, which reduces monitoring program effectiveness and limits planning capability.
It is desired to have increased predictability in forecasting when adverse conditions might occur in lubrication systems.